Tag Archives: New Album

Today I have not only the usual Friday new song day, which you can check HERE, for you guys, but also a new album 🙂 I have been working bit differently this year. Last year I had a new album out about every twelve weeks. But this year I decided to concentrate more on the singles. Soon after my last album “After the Storm” every song has been available for a download from my Bandcamp page on the day I posed them on my blog. So I now have quite few songs, that I have acoustic versions recorded, but waiting for some additional instruments. I do have some budget related restrictions that are slowing me down. But at the same time there were some songs that were always supposed to be just the acoustic guitar and me 🙂 And today, a selection of those songs are out as an album titled “I Believe In You.”

So if you are more of an album person (I know I am,) it is available on iTunes, Amazon and pretty much any bigger online download store. It will also be available to stream on Apple music, Spotify and most other streaming sites. I decided against doing a big PR campaign for the album, as my focus is more on the singles themselves, but you can help me to spread the word by sharing the album on your social media sites.

Having said that, I am exited and proud of this album. I think it is some of the more intimate work I’ve done up to date and I truly hope you guys will enjoy it as much as I did writing and recording it.

And how can you help me? Well, first of all you can share this page. Hit those share buttons at the end of the page as many times as you’d like 😀 You can also rate the album in iTunes, Amazon, like it in Apple music and Spotify. And most of all enjoy the music, after all that’s what this all is about. Never underestimate the power of us all working together 😉

My fifth album “After the Storm” is now officially out. I attached here a Spotify player so hit the play and listen while you read this post 🙂

At the end of 2014, when I was certain I was going to be able to finish my 52 song challenge, I started to think how much I had enjoyed the experience, and how great the response from people had been. At that stage it felt somehow just natural to continue releasing song a week in 2015 as well. Instead it being a chore, it had become a part of my life, and instead the songs getting stagnant, they actually started to get better. Funny thing really, to realise that if you do something a lot, you might actually get better at it… Who knew?

So this album is the first 12 songs of 2015. They are songs I am very proud of, they are song I hope will speak to you and you can relate to them, maybe find a little bit of your self in there somewhere.

Now as to the business side of things 😉 I decided to try something different this time. The fact is I want you to have the album. I did spend time, money and a lot of hard work to get the album done, so obviously I would expect to get return on it. But I do understand that for some people money is tight. So I set up a page with FanDistro, a website that let you share my music, and get a track in return. Or get your friends to share it and you will get the full album for free. Yep you heard me right, for free!

Now if you still want to support me financially, you can still purchase the album from there as well, and actually help not only an independent artist, but a charity as well. From all the sales of my album on the FanDistro site 20% goes to Direct Relief. Direct Relief is a charity that I am a big fan of, as they run a very lean operation and a staggering 99% of the money donated actually ends up in the source. I am always hesitant with charities as many of them are managed badly, and often the running of the organisation can eat a large amount of peoples donations.

The album is also available from iTunes, Amazon and all the usual online stores. And by the way, ratings and reviews on all of these sites make a world of difference to me as well 🙂

And here’s a few nice quotes from the first few reviews we got in already:

“Finnish man in Dublin has three of the best tracks of his career right inside the walls of this here album. After The Storm is a highlight of Kallio’s sensitivities as well as his guitar technical know how.”

“With his new album “After The Storm” he does make it as easy as possible to entice you to really listen: Superbly produced (headphone material!), with a strong baritone voice that can convey many moods and amazing fingerpicking guitar-playing and the odd sparse additional touch of an extra instrument or vocal, you are very welcome to listen to his lyrics. Nothing distracts, unless you get distracted by the outer world. I beg you: Don’t.”

When I set out on this journey to release 52 songs in 52 weeks, I knew it was going to be hard work and a learning curve, but I also expected that it would be quite rewarding experience. It turns out the hard work part has turned into something I just do and enjoy and along the way I have learned so much. Just to be able to churn out a meaningful song over and over again has forced me to look and observe the world around me in a completely different way. I had to dig deep within me, visit old wounds that I had either forgotten about, or buried deep somewhere in that pile of stuff at the back corner of the attic in my brain.

Now I thought Launching a new album would be scary, as many of my songs are personal as much as an observation of the world around me. I thought I’d be worried the day before it comes out, but it turns out by the time it gets to that point I am just dying to hear what people think of it.

Today my third album “Tell My Darling” is out and available from my website, iTunes, Amazon and all the usual online shops. at the same time I am working on the fourth album. As crazy as it seems, this is a great feeling 🙂 But I realised my biggest fears and self doubts about the songs show up actually in the recording process. I listen to the song, I know deep inside of me the song is ready, but I keep on putting off sending it to the mastering (this is the last point in my process, after the song is sent to mastering I move on to the next song). I listen to it over and over again, tempted to add layers, or tweak the effects, but I know if I go too far, I just end up polishing all the emotion out of the song.

Very early on in this journey I realised I had no desire to sound like so many other “produced to perfection” artists out there. That is not what I am about. That is not the kind of music that touches me, so why would I try to recreate it? I want you to hear the fingers touching my guitar strings, I want you to feel like you are in the room with me, I want you to hear the hesitation in my voice, I want to paint you a picture, tell you a story. This is what “Northern Boy” and “Read Between The Lines” were all about and that is what “Tell My Darling” very much is about. Hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it, and don’t forget Friday there will be the first instalment of the next set of songs up on my blog 🙂

Thank you for sharing this journey with me this far and if you’d like to get a copy of my new album, you can do so HERE

J.P.

The author J.P. Kallio is a singer songwriter
To get two of his free songs go HERE and click Download